Popular music and Spain's Transition to Democracy

 

University of Leeds, Baines Wing Room 2.10

Monday 11th November 17:00-18:00 - no need to book!

Delivered by Professor Duncan Wheeler

Whilst the Beatles played Spain during the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975), the explosion of live music and new Spanish bands occurred in the decade following his death. In this talk, I will discuss how a Transition to democracy requires not just an overhaul of the judicial and political framework but also a change in how people live and their relationship to each other. My argument is that popular music and live concerts provided the framework for new democratic ways of living as reflected, for example, in the early films of Pedro Almodóvar.

Duncan Wheeler (Birmingham, 1981), who holds a BA and PhD from Oxford University, is a Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Leeds. He is editor of the journal Modern Language Review, and a member of the Spanish Academy of Performing Arts. He has been a visiting professor at the Universidad Carlos III (Madrid), Oxford and UCLA. His publications include Golden Age Drama in Contemporary Spain: The Comedia on Page, Stage and Screen and Following Franco: Spanish Culture and Politics in Transition. Duncan writes for the media both in Spain and the UK and has published articles on politics and culture in The Economist, The Guardian, JotDown, The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement etc.